Biography

Timeline

Born in New York, NY, raised in New York, Alabama, and Long Island, Peter Beard kept diaries at an early age

1950

He took his first pictures and photography quickly evolved into an extension of his diaries, as a way to preserve and remember vacations and favorite things

1955

First trip to Africa

1957

Peter entered Yale University as a pre-medical student, but soon switched to art history, studying under Vincent Scully, Joseph Albers, and Richard Lindner

1960

Second trip to Africa. In the early 1960s he worked at Kenya’s Tsavo National Park, during which time he photographed and documented the demise of over 35,000 elephants and 5000 Black Rhinos and published two The End of the Game books (1965 / 1977)

1966 - 1968

Collaborated with Alistair Graham on crocodile study at Lake Rudolf for Kenya game department; later to become the basis of Eyelids of Morning: The Mingled Destines of Crocodiles and Men

1966

Worked with The Nuffield Unit of Tropical Ecology on a population dynamics study of elephants and hippopotamuses

1975

His first exhibit at the Blum Helman Gallery in New York, NY

1977

First solo show and landmark installation of his photographs, elephant carcasses, burned diaries, taxidermy, African artifacts, books and personal memorabilia at International Center of Photography in New York, USA

1996

Shortly after he was skewered and trampled by an elephant, his first major retrospective opened at the Centre National de la Photographie in Paris, followed by other exhibits in Berlin, London, Toronto, Madrid, Milan, Tokyo and Vienna

1998

50 Years of Portraits opened at Gallery One in Toronto; Canada Stress and Density opens at Camera Works, Berlin; Peter Beard art works exhibited at Paris Photo; Peter Beard works exhibited at the photo exhibition Under/Exposed, Stockholm, Sweden

Lives in New York and Montauk Point, and Kenya with his wife Nejma and daughter Zara